December 2012

December 29, 2012

Good mornin' peeps! Tonight, we'll start the long long weekend that won't just culminate in New Year's Eve, but on into the New Year as we have more day of New Year's dance events and basically a half week of work.... this means lots of you (let's be honest here) will be throwing themselves into bars, clubs, dance parties and sex parties... and with all of this comes drug use and abuse. I'm not here to wag a finger and tell you you're a bad person or anything, I'm posting this because, let's face it, it's easy to be stupid about this stuff.

Below I'm including a message from AVP with tips to help keep you safe during what might be for you an extended party weekend. But before I launch into that, and not to be a buzzkill, but there's that meningitis thing still lurking out, just keep your wits about you and you ought to be able to keep having all the fun you want to have on into the new year!

AVP has recently
heard of concerns about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
(LGBTQ) community members being robbed or assaulted in connection with
drug related sales. This violence can occur in both public and private
spaces, such as bars, bathrooms, private homes or the street. People
are often reluctant to report these violent incidents to the police due
to stigma and fear of arrest around recreational drug use, and/or
previous experience of bias, discrimination or violence from the
police. Often people go without the support they need because they
don’t know where to turn for help.

Violence can have both physical and emotional impacts, and AVP
encourages our community members to get support and stay safe. AVP can
help even if the incident isn’t reported to the police and we keep all
information confidential. If you witnessed or experienced violence, you
can call AVP’s 24-hour bilingual (English/Spanish) hotline at 212-714-1141 at any time and speak to a counselor to get support. You can also report online at avp.org.

Below are our tips for our communities about staying safe.

If you or your friends are engaged in drug-related activity, be aware of these incidents of violence and use these tips below:

Staying Safe

Have a safety plan:
Let someone know your plans, such as who you’ll be with, the location
of your meeting place, the phone number of the person you are meeting,
and your plans for the evening. Give this information to people you are
comfortable sharing with before you go out. Also talk with your
friends about ways that you can support each other. Plan in advance
what will happen if you feel unsafe and need to contact them – will they
come to you? Call the police? Meet you somewhere? Agree on your plan
before you go out.

Leave a trail and use your tech:
Text yourself or friends about where you’ll be or where you are
throughout the night; save messages on Facebook, MySpace, OKCupid,
Grindr, etc.

On bathrooms and other public spaces:
Be aware that incidents can occur in these locations. Be aware of
others in the restroom, stay near the exit if possible, use single stall
restrooms where available, and if you feel uncomfortable find a
different restroom to use.

Be aware of your surroundings:
Let friends, other patrons or bar/nightclub staff know if you leave
temporarily and when you intend to return. When you are outside, scan
the street for establishments (such as a bodega or car service) where
you can go to seek help if you feel unsafe.

Trust your instincts: If you feel threatened or unsafe at any point, if at all possible leave the area as quickly as possible.

You can say no: No matter who initiates or how far you’ve gone, you can stop at any time for any reason.

Get involved!
To help keep our communities safe, get involved with AVP’s community
organizing work. Help develop our programs and projects to bring safety
for all communities.

Getting Support

If possible, consider medical attention or getting counseling after any incident: Violence can create many physical and emotional issues.

Document the incident: Take photos of any injuries; keep records of emails, texts, calls.

Take care of yourself by utilizing supportive friends, partners and family.

Call AVP!
AVP is here to support survivors of all forms of violence, including
pick up, dating, sexual, intimate partner, hate, and police violence.
If you have witnessed or experience violence, we encourage you to call
our 24-hour bilingual (English/Spanish) hotline at 212-714-1141 where you can speak with a trained counselor or to use our secure online reporting form at www.avp.org.

December 27, 2012

Because the 400th show
was too big to contain (and really, as gay men, how often have we heard
that?), we’ve decided to continue celebrating on into our 401st (just 99
til 500!) by celebrating Gusty Winds’ birthday. Gusty herself will be
joining us as will Cockyboys model Antonio Manero! 100% of the funds
from the night will go to the Ali Forney Center’s recovery efforts!

Join us for one last boo-yah as 2012 winds to a close at long last!
Erotic prizes, great guests, four rounds of Bingo and the usual yakkety yak yak. AB will be back and we'll have some funky giveaways (not funky as in smell, but funky as in offbeat. LOL

DJ Chauncey Dandridge spins, happy hour includes $4 well drinks til Bingo is over and hey you just never quite know exactly what's going to happen (and just to be transparent, uhm we don't either! LOL)

See you tonight at Ritz Bar & Lounge located at 369 W. 46th Street on Restaurant Row near Ninth Ave from 7pm to 9pm.... we survived like the lamest apocolypse ever, so we might as well start getting tanked now so that we're good and lubed up for the end of the year (and for those of you keeping track, I'm just 10 days away from leaving on my two week vacation to the Caribbean!!)

About the Ali Forney Center New York City can be a brutal place for homeless youth and tragically,
many young lives have been destroyed. At the Ali Forney Center (AFC), we
are making a difference by rescuing kids from the dangers of the
streets and placing them into our safe, homelike environments.

AFC is working hard to provide our youth with the support and
nourishment they need to succeed and thrive. We cannot do this work
alone. We need the help and support of the broader community to make NYC
a safer place for homeless LGBT youth.

December 25, 2012

I'll admit that I can probably trace my 'peace/love/swords into plowshares" attitude towards war back to this holiday song from The Royal Guardsman who preached (through Snoopy) that even mortal enemies can celebrate Christmas together (it also reinforced my love for that old Warner Brothers cartoon where the guard dog and the fox hang out together but as soon as they're on the clock they're sworn to kill each other. A nice bit of agitprop there).

Anyway, I haven't heard this song in decades and it popped into my head the other day so I thought I'd share it with you. This video was made by a fan of the Snoopy strip and has clips culled from various Peanuts specials. It's kind of shocking that no one has remade these or has set visuals to them. I probably shouldn't give anyone any ideas. Snoopy will turn into the hugely overblown mess that the Grinch and the Horton movies were!

Don't even pretend that you don't love Mariah Carey's Xmas miracle, "All I Want For Christmas (is You)" because you'd have to have a heart made of coal and I know that's not true... and if the original tune wasn't fabulous enough, this year Jimmy Fallon got in the act on his show featuring the Roots playing instruments found only in a regular classroom - and the special pop up elementary school singers makes it all the more delightful.

If you live alone, you're in luck - you are now free to dance around your home or apartment with wild abandon while singing or lip synching to this song and no one will ever know. Shhh.. I won't tell anyone because I'll be too busy doing that myself. Just sayin. :)

And the best thing is that Carey doesn't even have to frakking TRY to be the master of this domain, she just is. And she's pretty fabulous. Rock on girl! (and btw we more than forgive you for Glitter)

December 24, 2012

Between spending the last couple days posting pics from the past 8 weeks of Bingo and spending the couple weeks before that posting nearly 400 posters on Pinterest AND getting far ahead on booking Bingo nights because of the 2 week vacation coming up, I am a little bingo-ed out. LOL

But then I look at all the awesome pics that Mrs. Claus took this past Thursday at our 400th show and I get all goose-pimply and shit like that. So many friends came out to wish us well and my wonderful guests - Lucas Entertainment's Vito Gallo (whose pants I got to take off.. scandalous!! LOL), Kylie Edmond (whom I sang with!! What a treat!) and Candy Samples (who performed twice and introduced me for the night) were just that- wonderful!

Thanks especially to my dear friend Terry who brought something to sip down the line and to my dear friend Evan who brought a very special piece of artwork that is incredibly meaningful to me (even if it wouldn't maybe make so much sense to anyone else).

In the midst of a busy holiday season for all, it was really great to see such a nice turnout for our 399th show and our new friends at Cycle for the Cause - the AIDS bike ride here on the east coast that benefits the HIV/AIDS services at New York's LGBT Center on W. 13th Street. Cycle for the Cause will be joining us once a month through to September when the ride itself happens and we've got lots of fun things planned with them.

But on December 13th I welcomed go go guy David Terzian - his second appearance in just a few weeks admittedly but it's hard not to want to bring in fun, sexy guys when you find them!

My other guest was transgendered comic Julia Scotti who performs around Manhattan at comedy nights sposnored by comic Tom Ragu.

As the holiday season got rolling, friends came in from Montreal, the place got hoppin' and I welcomed the current Mr. Eagle Arsenio (who brought gift cards from the Leatherman and Nasty Pig) and singer Joey Ruckus to the show to raise funds for Housing Works. Guest DJ Hertz Van Rental joined us to spin throughout the evening. Click here to see the free gallery of pix! (Thanks to our photographer AB)

Good morning all - happy holidays and hope that all of you are able to spend today and tomorrow with special friends and/or family.

Hurricane Sandy pushed back the deadline for this year's "Postcards from the Edge", Visual AIDS annual fundraiser that has also been pushed back a few weeks.

The new deadline for work to be delivered is Wednesday January 2nd and the actual event will happen Saturday January 26th and Sunday January 27th with the always popular "preview" party taking place on Friday January 25th. The preview party is $85 this year; and each piece that you want to buy will also cost you $85. There will be over 1500 anonymous postcard sized pieces of art available throughout the weekend.

December 23, 2012

Yes $3,000. And if you were there, you experienced one of the biggest, best Bingo nights ever as the place packed itself with friends and fans hungrily helping the Ali Forney Center get back on it's feet. We already had $2k going in - two separate Bingo supporters donated a thousand each and over the course of a couple hours we raised another thousand with the help of another anonymous donor who offered to match the largest auction of the night (which just happened to be $200 for Jake Deckard's jockstrap).

Yeah, it was that kind of night!

Witti Repartee sang, Molly Dykeman talked about her upcoming show at the Laurie Beechamn and of course Santa Claus gave some free rides to one and all throughout the night.. but it was our long time friend Jake Deckard that drew the most attention - as Jake has been kind of laying low until lately when his newly directed flick for Ray Dragon, MEN IN THE SAND, a sorta kind of update to the classic BOYS IN THE SAND has been making lots of chatter in the pornosphere. As you can see in the pics from the night by clicking here (thanks AB for such stunning pics!) you can see our favorite Daddy with a heart of solid gold has still got what it takes to keep many admirers (including this here fan) wrapped around his finger (and I think I speak for all of Jake's fan when I say that we're quite happy to be there).

Thanks to our pals at Ray Dragon for the DVDS (we were supposed to get some awesome Jake starring ones from Raging Stallion but oh the UPS drama!) and thanks to the Imperial Court for sending over the lovely and beguiling Farrah Moans who brought Jenna Marina and togehter they sold Bingo cards throughout the evening for the AFC. (Farrah will be joining us again as one of my guests at my bon voyage party on January 3rd - it's "Butt Pirates of the Caribbean" as I prepare to spend two weeks on a cruise to the Caribbean.. the night will benefit Trinity Place Click here for the Facebook page and by no conicidence, Witti will be guest hosting while I'm gone, on January 10th and January 17th details to come). And thanks too to our friends at NEXT Magazine who sent over some tix to auction off to CHAPLIN
and FOREVER DUSTY. :)

Check out the gallery and go all the way to the end.. yes there are 48 pics there (about twice as many as usual) but there were just so many really amazing pictures that I couldn't resist. Anyway, this Thursday December 27th, we will again be raising funds for the Ali Forney Center - if you can make it, please stop by.. if not (or if you live out of the NYC area) please consider donating a few dollars to them - as you know their facilities were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy and the entire LGBT community here in NYC is banding together to get them back up and helping LGBT youth as soon as possible!